Woods Hole researcher to explore new frontier

Friday

Jun 9, 2017 at 6:24 PMJun 9, 2017 at 6:24 PM

Loral O'Hara moves from sea to space as NASA astronaut candidate.

Christine Legere @ChrisLegereCCT

WOODS HOLE — Loral O’Hara cannot remember a time when she didn’t want to become an astronaut, but if pressed to identify that “defining moment,” the 34-year-old Woods Hole research engineer says it would be as a second-grader, when her class conducted an experiment measuring the progress of tomatoes grown from seeds that had flown in space with those that hadn’t.

The thought of those tiny seeds hurtling through space in a rocket caught the young girl’s imagination.

“That’s when I got hooked,” she said.

Growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, with its proximity to the Johnson Space Center, certainly contributed to the dream, and choosing a career in science came naturally for members of the O’Hara family.

Her father and sister are geologists, her mother a medical technician and her brother a math major and industrial engineer.

O’Hara set her sights on the sky, specializing in aerospace engineering, aeronautics and astronautics.

This week, O’Hara took a giant step toward achieving her dream, as one of 12 astronaut candidates selected by NASA from a field of more than 18,000 — the largest number ever to apply.

Among the candidates are officers from most branches of the military, a NASA research pilot, engineers, an MIT professor and a doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Beginning in August, the group will train for two years at the Johnson Space Center.

O’Hara will spend the next few weeks back on the Cape. Employed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 2009, she has applied her engineering background to help design mechanical systems for an upgrade of Alvin, the human-occupied submersible. She went on to help develop novel underwater vehicles capable of exploring extreme deep-sea environments.

Senior engineer Donald Peters, who hired O’Hara and supervises her, describes the young woman as “the best possible combination of skills, knowledge, broad range of experience and tremendous curiosity.” And she’s a great team player, he said.

One of the achievements that initially persuaded him to hire her, Peters said, was the fact she earned her pilot’s license when she was just 16 years old.

“She’s a remarkable person and exceptional to work with,” said Peters, who admitted getting a little teary when he heard she made the NASA team.

Woods Hole principal engineer Andrew Bowen also worked with O’Hara on several projects related to robotic vehicles. “It’s an incredible honor for us to have hosted Loral at Woods Hole,” he said. “We were very glad to have her involved in our programs.”

Certifications, training and leadership roles she held at Woods Hole helped her stand out during NASA’s selection process, O’Hara said.

She had unsuccessfully applied twice before.

“When I went to fill out the application this time, I realized I had more background and had done a pretty big project with a leadership role,” O’Hara said. “I had high hopes.”

They panned out.

“I wouldn’t say I chose space over sea,” O’Hara said. “It’s all motivated by the same desire to go to new places and explore, and to work with a team.”

The desire to explore is a common thread in O’Hara’s life, who lists her hobbies as traveling, surfing, diving, sailing, hiking, orienteering and caving.

“I like activities where you have to be really focused on what you’re doing, living in the moment and managing risk,” she said. “They all have an element of exploration to them.”

O’Hara looks forward to the next two years at the Houston space center.

“There will be a wide array of training opportunities, including wilderness survival, flying jets, learning Russian and space station systems,” she said. “Our class is very diverse. We’ll be working together and sharing our skills.”

Once training is complete, O’Hara may be selected to conduct research on the International Space Station, launch from the U.S. on spacecraft being built by commercial companies, or travel into deep space on NASA’s Orion spacecraft or Space Launch System.

She’s hoping to be selected for deep-space exploration, although the odds of that may be long.

“I think taking steps on another planet would be incredible: looking for life, trying to find out what’s under the ocean on the moons of Jupiter or Saturn.”

It's possible, O’Hara said, deep-sea exploration on other planets will be done in submersibles similar to those designed right on the Cape at Woods Hole.